Torpid preseason outings by Washington’s offense carry over against Philadelphia

 

September 11, 2017

By Jamual Forrest

Many like to avoid reacting to the preseason performances, thinking that it’s a false sense of reality for an NFL team. The Redskins offense needed to come out against Philadelphia with a sense of urgency and give the impression that chemistry isn’t lacking throughout the entire unit to disprove the lethargic performances of the preseason. Instead of disproving their preseason performances, they continued to build upon that reputation.

The Redskins finished the day with only three third down conversions for a 27% conversion rate, surrendered four sacks, and committed three turnovers. Pass protection was a problem throughout the game, and so was the run blocking. It didn’t just come down to the offensive line, though: the offensive failures landed on the receivers and quarterback as well.  Cousins, who has dropped the reputation as a turnover prone quarterback, has instead picked up a new reputation as a guy who has untimely turnovers. Obviously, there’s no good time for a turnover, but untimely nature of his turnovers are that they seem to interrupt the flow of the game. Turnovers that are momentum killers are the prime example of untimely turnovers. Cousins’ interception in the redzone was an attempt to hit a wide-open Jamison Crowder, but with pressure in his face, Cousins threw of his back foot, which resulted in a sailed pass.

Pryor looked shaky in his official debut as a Redskin and later shouldered the blame post-game, but it wasn’t just on Pryor. The offense was just poor throughout the game. Kirk Cousins was tied for the leading rusher of the day with Robert Kelley, who had 10 carries for 30 yards. The “Hogs 2.0” struggled to sustain a running game against the Eagles’ front seven. The Redskins backs carried the ball 13 times for a total of 34 yards.

With another opening day loss for Jay Gruden’s Redskins in the books, they now face a one game deficit against two of their NFC East divisional foes. If a team wants to be considered a threat of any sort, you must not only take care of your home field, but also play a sound and disciplined game. This lost wasn’t just on the Redskins offense, but the side of the ball that was expected to play at a high level throughout the year was a big letdown in their first game of the new season. A west coast trip to Los Angeles is in store for the Redskins next week – another solid defense for Cousins and company to go up against. There was a sense of urgency heading into week one against the Eagles, and the Redskins didn’t respond.  I can only imagine the mindset of the team heading into next week.